Proteins with amino acid repeats constitute a rapidly evolvable and human-specific essentialome.

Protein products of essential genes, indispensable for organismal survival, are highly conserved and bring about fundamental functions. Interestingly, proteins that contain amino acid homorepeats that tend to evolve rapidly are enriched in eukaryotic essentialomes. Why are proteins with hypermutable homorepeats enriched in conserved and functionally vital essential proteins? We solve this functional versus evolutionary paradox by demonstrating that human essential proteins with homorepeats bring about crosstalk across biological processes through high interactability and have distinct regulatory functions affecting expansive global regulation.

Structural and Functional Attributes of Microrchidia Family of Chromatin Remodelers.

Chromatin remodelers affect the spatio-temporal dynamics of global gene-expression by structurally modulating and/or reorganizing the chromatin. Microrchidia (MORC) family is a relatively new addition to the four well studied families of chromatin remodeling proteins. In this review, we discuss the current understanding of the structural aspects of human MORCs as well as their epigenetic functions.

Structure, Activity and Function of the Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 6.

Members of the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family methylate the arginine residue(s) of several proteins and regulate a broad spectrum of cellular functions. Protein arginine methyltransferase 6 (PRMT6) is a type I PRMT that asymmetrically dimethylates the arginine residues of numerous substrate proteins. PRMT6 introduces asymmetric dimethylation modification in the histone 3 at arginine 2 (H3R2me2a) and facilitates epigenetic regulation of global gene expression.

Amino acid homorepeats in proteins.

Amino acid homorepeats, or homorepeats, are polypeptide segments found in proteins that contain stretches of identical amino acid residues. Although abnormal homorepeat expansions are linked to pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases, homorepeats are prevalent in eukaryotic proteomes, suggesting that they are important for normal physiology. In this Review, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the biological functions of homorepeats, which range from facilitating subcellular protein localization to mediating interactions between proteins across diverse cellular pathways.